1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to special receptacles or packages for ampules, capsules, pellets, granules, and other solids or liquids. More particularly, the present invention pertains to stacking bottle closures having structure for removably holding an article, material or liquid therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the knowledge of mankind has grown, so has the recognition of many beneficial substances and compounds. The substances and compounds have been studied extensively, and are often extracted, refined, concentrated or otherwise processed to provide the most desired combination of benefits and features, while enabling a person to ingest these without having to substantially alter their diet or lifestyle. Exemplary compounds are medications, nutritional supplements such as vitamins, herbal extracts and the like, and various other compounds too numerous to specifically mention herein, generally referred to herein below as medicaments. One specific compound of interest herein is aspirin, which has been shown to have particularly unusual benefit when consumed immediately before, during or immediately subsequent to a heart or circulatory event such as a heart attack or the like.
However beneficial such medicaments may be, when concentrated and tableted or otherwise preserved in dry, solid or semi-solid form, they are generally very difficult to ingest. Consequently, a person will most typically place the medicament in one's mouth, and then imbibe sufficient liquid to wash the medicament from the mouth into the stomach. Most commonly, a person will fill a cup with sufficient liquid, open the receptacle, bottle or the like in which the medicament is stored, remove the appropriate numbers of pills, tablets, or volume of medicament, place the medicament in their mouth, transfer the liquid from the cup into their mouth, and then swallow.
Unfortunately, the typical method of ingesting such compounds requires ready access to both liquid and pill bottle. There are many occasions where such access is not readily available or practical. Consequently, a person would prefer to be able to package small items such as pills or the like together with a liquid, and be able to transport the combined package wherever desired or required.
A number of artisans have recognized this need, and have provided available solutions. Exemplary are United States patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,681 to Howes which illustrates a bottle or can insert that does not change the external appearance of the receptacle, but holds in a dry and isolated compartment an item for the user of the receptacle; U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,017 to Muza et al, which illustrates a water bottle cap with a multi-compartment pill dispenser; U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,358 to North et al, which illustrates a water bottle and cover, where the cover stores sealed tablets and, when the seal is broken, either the tablet falls into the water for consumption with the water or the tablet is freed for drinking as the water washes the pill into the user's mouth; and published application 2002/0,166,835 to Carter, which illustrates a general container cover with a flip-open compartment for medications, including aspirin. Other pill holders are illustrated, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,766,796 to Tupper, which illustrates a separate container in the drink cover that holds aspirins; U.S. Pat. No. 3,446,179 to Bender, which illustrates a bottle cover that extends into the neck of the bottle with a compartment for medications; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,419,081 to Ross, which illustrates a single-end-access or double-end-access container holding pills and water, the single-end-access variant providing a sub-container in the cap.
While these and the remaining multitude of approaches may have met with some limited success, the demands of the market place have not yet been satisfied sufficiently to result in a mainstream adaptation of these techniques. Unfortunately then, many lives are needlessly lost which would otherwise be prevented. Furthermore, persons continually adversely affect their health by not taking medicaments at appropriate times, owing to a temporary lack of available fluid, or by failing to have the medicament at the same time as the fluid.